"Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever" (Faber and Faber), by Will Hermes: New York City might have been dead broke, crime-ridden and garbage-infested in the 1970s, but the music sure was great.

Bob Marley opened a club date for Bruce Springsteen, Bronx DJs stole power from streetlights to fiddle with turntables in new ways, Philip.....